This week’s episode of Grimm finds Nick leaving Portland in his pursuit of more keys and the seven knights’ treasure that we found out about last week. I’m super happy Nick is finally able to venture out and see the world. Has he ever been on a plane before? Has he ever even left Portland?

I love this episode’s quote. It’s clearly foreshadowing things to come, but could be taken in several different ways. The quote speaks of a map, and of course, Nick has the map that the keys make when combined. But the quote is also telling because it is from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. Does this mean Nick is searching for an elusive treasure he will never attain? Or will he encounter some white whale-like creature in the depths of the Black Forest? Let’s find out, shall we?

INTO THE WOODS WE GO

The episode starts with a few key flashbacks (no pun intended): the seven keys were forged by the seven royal families who fought during the 4th crusade, or so the legend goes. The sides of the keys are all imprinted with a portion of a map that leads to where the seven knights hid the treasure they took from Constantinople. Nick is descended from one of those knights. Oh, and all of those knights were Grimms. No big deal.

The team is pouring over the map the keys make, along with ancient maps of the Black Forest, trying to figure out which portion of the forest the key-map is about. They finally realize that there are seven churches on the maps. All are marked with steeples except one which is marked with a cross, which they slowly deduce is actually an X (as in, X marks the spot). And as Monroe reminds us, it makes perfect sense that the knights would hide the treasure in a church since they were on a godly crusade.

Now that they’ve figured all that out, it’s time they head to Germany and try to locate the treasure. Trubel reminds them that Black Claw is probably at least vaguely aware of the treasure, even if they don’t have the advantage of the key-map. Black Claw is also very aware of Nick and is undoubtedly keeping tabs on him. Because of this, Nick and Monroe head to Germany under fake names. Rosalee apparently “knows a guy” who can get them fake passports, which strikes me as odd. Not odd that Rosalee knows some disreputable characters, but odd that Nick wouldn’t just get fake IDs from Hadrian’s Wall. After all, Trubel has like 15 different identities thanks to them. But whatever, don’t mind me pointing out plot holes.

Adalind is not happy Nick is going to Germany in pursuit of an 800-year-old treasure. But it does give her the opportunity to drop the L word which seemed incredibly abrupt and out of the blue. And of course, they sleep together, because I mean, why not? It’s not like they have this horrible, unhealthy history to work out before jumping into bed. Apparently when you’re about to go on an ancient treasure hunt by following a map made out of 800-year-old keys, that calls for less thinking and more sexy time.

Nick and Monroe uneventfully make their way to Germany and quickly find the church they’re looking for, along with a creepy Wesen priest who has no interest in helping a Grimm. As soon as they leave, the priest calls in reinforcements and issues a kill order on Nick.

Completely unaware, Nick and Monroe head into the forest, to the hill above the town, thinking perhaps the treasure is buried up there. Just as the Wesen priest and his lackeys are closing in, Nick and Monroe find a foundation stone from an ancient church, and when they dig it up, it opens a hole in the ground that they promptly fall through.

DESTRUCTION IN HIS WAKE

Meanwhile, Captain Renard is playing dirty politics with his friend Andrew Dixon’s mayoral campaign. In an effort to keep Dixon in the lead, Renard hands over some damning information to the press about the opponent. It does the trick, and Dixon shoots up four points in the polls. Unfortunately, Dixon’s about to have bigger issues than beating out a mayoral opponent.

Hadrian’s Wall has been busy tracking a Black Claw assassin/terrorist named Marwan Hanano, who has been taking out important people all over the world and disguising the assassinations as larger, catastrophic events. Each time he’s done this, hundreds of people are left dead, and only Hadrian’s Wall has figured out he’s actually targeting key individuals.

Just as Monroe and Nick are headed out of Portland, Marwan is headed in. Trubel thinks Eve may be Marwan’s next target, but it looks like he’s actually there for Andrew Dixon.

The Dixon campaign holds a rally in the park and Marwan takes his shot. Literally. In addition to being a master bomb-maker, apparently this guy is also a deadly sniper. To Hank and Wu’s credit, they realize what’s going on before Hadrian’s Wall does, but they still aren’t able to stop it in time.

The whole episode ends on a giant cliffhanger leading up to the 100th episode, which airs next week. Will Nick and Monroe escape the hole they just fell into and find the knights’ treasure in the process? Will Andrew Dixon live? Will Marwan Hanano be caught, and Black Claw’s reign of terror finally come to an end? Hopefully we’ll get some answers to all these questions next week!

Bonus Musings:

“If you’re not smart enough to bury dirt, you don’t belong in the game.”

“You don’t just make a map and imprint it on the sides of seven keys for fun.”